Category Archives: N.K. Jemisin

Well, finishing The Broken Earth Trilogy was a great feeling. At one point I wasn’t sure I was going to finish this series but after rereading The Obelisk Gate and getting over some of my criticisms, I am so glad I finished it because it ended so well. I really didn’t think that this could have wrapped up all of Jemisin’s plot points so well. What really was unexpected was how much political and real-world commentary she was able to put into this third book. This book was just dripping with sass and vigor, I loved it. I’m very happy with how everyone’s storyline was wrapped up.

Reread
History of me reading this book:
I first read this at the beginning of 2017. I thought the book was just an alright read and had many issues with it. After rereading it at the beginning of 2018, I realized that I did 2 main things wrong when I first read this book:1. I read it too fast the first time.
The first time I read this book I was all gung-ho about reading books faster and getting a big jump on my Goodreads challenge. I remember reading the majority of this book in two sittings and I missed a lot because I was trying to read it too quickly.2. Outside circumstances with Twitter and Trump being elected really didn’t put me in the correct headspace when I read this book. During that time Twitter was highly toxic. Reviewers were attacking authors, authors were attacking reviewers, everyone was a political expert, and there was just a large sense of being critical of everything. Even though a lot of these individuals were in the right, the way they went about doing it really impacted my mindset coming into this book. I was highly critical of the characters in The Obelisk Gate as far as their actions and found flaws in their reasoning. I was already in the defensive and critical mode before I even opened up the book’s first page.

Reading this book now, when I’m in a much better mental state, has been great. I absolutely fell in love with this series again. These are imperfect characters doing their best to stay alive. Do I still have reservations about Alabaster’s reasoning for creating the Season? Yes, I do, and probably always will unless the logic is more solid in the third book, but it doesn’t bother me as much as it once did. I understand the world so much better because I read the book slower this time.

I’ve learned through this that sometimes books work at one time but not at another. I also learned that even though you disliked a book the first time you tried to read it doesn’t mean it won’t be amazing the second time. I also learned that I am highly susceptible to being a moody reader and that social media triggers that moodiness. That is one reason that throughout last year I really changed how I used social media and am a much calmer person.

Anyway, great book, can’t wait to read the third book. I kept my prior review as an archive of my journey with this book.

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin sees the shift of the trilogy change from the characters in The Fifth Season to a mostly world building story in The Obelisk Gate and I’m a bit disappointed that it did. That isn’t the only shift we have, there is a large shift in the type of story that is being told. The Fifth Season was a fantasy book that encompassed a large portion of the land in the story, meeting many different people, and explored the world in a more traditional sense. The Obelisk Gate was rather rooted in place, mostly in two comms, and the story became more of a post-apocalyptic survival novel. I was a bit disappointed with this shift in narrative, as I wanted to learn more about the Fulcrum, the leadership of various cities, and be introduced to many more characters. I guess I didn’t really take The Fifth Season seriously enough about what Alabaster did to the continent and this book ended up being a slight disappointment for me. It was just an alright read with some serious flaws that I couldn’t overlook.

As I mentioned above, this was more of a world-building book. The Fifth Season pushed the story along with its characters while this book pushed the story along with the revelation of answers. These answers came in a way that I didn’t expect from N.K. Jemisin, in a very infodump heavy way. It almost seemed like Alabaster’s presence in this story was just to tell Essun the info about the world and the magic. There is a section in this story where Alabaster is basically telling Essun everything. While reading it I was excited about some revelations but after it was told I couldn’t help but think it was done in a rushed, hurried way, that created some possible logic errors in my understanding of this world. I would have much preferred if we got that information from an Alabaster point of view chapter about what happened when he disappeared from Meov.

That is the main crux of The Obelisk Gate, there are just too many coincidences, and logic errors. After reading this, I can’t help but believe that the world was better off without Alabaster and Essun. The two of them are genocidal murderers. Alabaster’s reasoning for starting the fifth season is to possibly end all the seasons, in other words, kill a bunch of people now, to possibly stop the cycle of seasons later. This is the same reasoning that most war criminals use to do unspeakable mass murder in our world. Essun is barely better, she is walking destruction. If you are a community near where Essun is, you should just leave now before she kills you all. Sure, she protects those that are important to her but then does the equivalent of a drone attack on entire villages. Are we being duped by Jemisin? Are our main characters actually the villains? I’m all for anti-heros but we need them to be dealing with their demons. They need to be trying to do better not progressively getting worse. I want to see some REGRET.

Essun and Nassun have some serious mental health issues that are being ignored. Essun won’t deal with the things that happened to her in the past and instead lashes out in anger constantly. Then there is Nassun, who I just feel sorry for. I couldn’t take her storyline seriously because it was too coincidental that the one place they needed to go under really flimsy reasoning(Jija knowing about some place that heals roggas) was the one place where Schaffa is. I also couldn’t take her seriously because she knew her father killed Uche but still wanted to trust her father and then she has the emotional maturity to manipulate her father later on. If she had the emotional maturity to manipulate her father into not hurting her, I feel like she was mature enough to know to get away from the abusive situation. I just feel so sorry for her as a child because she is constantly abused and just wants love. Now she is turning into a weapon with little care for human life. Her storyline is just depressing.

I know this is just a fantasy/post-apocalyptic novel but the lack of empathy by all the characters towards other people just drained me. There is a lot of hate towards orogenes in this book and we are supposed to feel like we should be tolerant towards these individuals, that it is unfair for people to be so prejudiced against them, but I can’t help feel that they bring a lot upon themselves. The orogenes are the reason for the fifth seasons, probably the shattering, they kill hundreds of people easily, wipe towns off the face of the earth, and I just can’t get behind them. In fact, I think having the Fulcrum, giving guidance to these powerful individuals and control, stopping quakes from happening, is a smart thing to do. Why destroy all that for a possible myth/folklore like story about Father Earth and the moon?

I just wanted one character to be the voice of reason in this series. One person to say, “Defending ourselves is fine, but what you are doing is going too far.” Someone to say, “Let’s try to figure out a better way to fix things than killing thousands of people.” Hoa could have been that character and I still think he is the best chance at being the hero this story needs. I’ll probably still read the third book, just to see how Jemisin wraps things up and justifies some of the actions taken by our characters, but I’m not as excited for it as I was for this one. Also, having multiple second person voices was just confusing and unneeded. There are some serious logic errors about what the narrator knows now that it is confirmed who the narrator is.

In today’s video, I talk about Henosis by N.K. Jemisin and Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand by Fran Wilde and how I didn’t understand either. I also talk about how my summer reading challenge impacted me and Superman #29 / Super Sons #7.

Like earthquakes, volcanoes, and seismic catastrophes? Well imagine if you could control those things with magic because your planet is unstable. That is the premise of The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin and it is highly imaginative.

Recommendation: If you like highly imaginative world building fantasy then this one is for you. The world building is definitely the most focused element in the story. I recommend a buy on this book when you want a complex and original fantasy experience.

The Fifth Season is a story about three women surviving in a harsh environment. This world is so inhospitable that there are volcano and earthquakes happening all that time that threaten life. In each age though, a group of people survive, and rebuild. The story is about three women, all of them orogenes, individuals that can control the earthquakes and volcanoes, to help people survive. Orogenes are looked down upon my normal people though because they believe that orogenes cause most of the issues instead of help. One woman is a mother that came home to find her child murdered by her husband. She is now on her way to find her husband, for revenge, and take back the daughter he stole from her. The second point of view is a young girl that finds out she is an orogene, and must go to a special school to learn about her powers. The last point of view is an active assistant oregene that is under a much powerful oregene. Their job is to quell a city’s quakes and find out what is happening in their world. Is this the end of another age? Will they survive this one?

This book was fantastic. I initially rated the book a 5 star rating but after some thought I think the plot could have been a little tighter. There were moments when I was a little bit confused why certain parts of the book was added but I think it is going to be referenced in later books. Jemisin held back a lot while writing this and made it a better book. We kind of understand how this world works at the beginning of the book but as the characters progress we realize that not everything is as it seems.

The world building in this was fantastic. I have always been interested in the techtonic plates that the earth sits on. I find it fascinating that the world used to be one large landmass and that the movement of these plates shaped our world. So right away, the world building had my interest because this world that N. K. Jemisin wrote is much more active than earth as far as seismic activity. Listen, volcanoes are cool, being able to control a volcano is even cooler. What more can I say? It is an entire book that revolves around people that are like the earth kid from Captain Planet. There is even a stone eater race that, well, eats stone. This stone kid can make his skin turn however he wants it to look and turn giant mammoth things into stone by touching them.

This book is all about different skin colored individuals and crazy hair. Seriously, this is one of the more diverse fantasy books I’ve ever read. There is a transgender character and many character’s sexuality is very fluid. All of this never takes away from the world and the story. This is a story without a male point of view, just multiple female points of view. Really cool.

I really liked this book and I think this is going to be N. K. Jemisin’s most successful franchise. She deserves it. She puts out solid books, that are really inventive, but this one is a cut above the rest.

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin is my first Jemisin novel and I was impressed, this is a solid book. The Killing Moon is a fantasy story set in an Egyptian like setting. All of the characters are people of color and have varying differences in pigment based on where they live in the region. This is a high fantasy novel that focuses a lot on information being withheld from characters. This ignorance sets up the plot and the revealing of information is the hook for the reader.

Ehiru is a Gatherer for the country Gujaareh. A Gatherer collects the magic from individual’s dreams and can use that magic to heal, soothe, or release someone from this life that is in pain into paradise. A Gatherer can also punish others with death that are marked as enemies. When Ehiru, with his apprentice Nijiri, meets a woman, Sunandi, from an opposing country, she brings information to Ehiru that might change his entire outlook on his own country and job. Also, a mysterious monster is killing people in their sleep, and its eyes are set on Ehiru next.

This fantasy novel has a focus on world building and plot over characters. I usually enjoy books like this, as long as the characters aren’t too wooden. Ehiru and Sunandi are the stand out characters for me. I like the growth in Ehiru’s character and his struggle with what he does as a Gatherer was my favorite part of the story. He has been told for awhile that his “gathering” is something of mercy and when he learns that it might not be as it is, he must struggle with this complex issue. Sunandi is a female character set in an important role that has a lot of intelligence. Sunandi is the voice of reason in this novel and I found that refreshing, as that character is usually played by an older gentleman. Even though Sunandi is the voice of reason, she is very much a woman too, and her femininity is great.

The world building is my favorite part of this novel. I enjoyed learning about this unique world and I absolutely loved the setting. A unique take on an Egyptian like culture was fantastic. The Gatherer system was interesting and I constantly wanted to read to learn more about them and other mysteries in this world. The small history deposits of the past rulers of this mythical land added so much flavor and depth to the world, it really improved my enjoyment of this novel.

Jemisin’s writing is easy to read and understand. I had to use the glossary a few times at the beginning but I was never lost in this novel. It is on that border of too complex and just right. Jemisin’s writing isn’t really special in any way, it is very conversational in reading, and doesn’t showcase Jemisin’s skill as a writer much.

When it comes to The Killing Moon, everything is just done good. There is nothing that stands out as exceptional. I was hoping for something a little special in this novel to make me like it more but it is just steady and solid. This is a fun read that will keep you entertained but it isn’t going to make any favorite book lists often. I think that if the world building and setting intrigues you, than this is probably something you’ll enjoy. I liked it, but I’m a lover of world building and history in fantasy books. People looking for a deep character driven book should look elsewhere and people looking for something beautiful to read might try something else too. This book is all about the mystery created by this world building and if that sounds interesting to you, check it out. Nothing annoyed me in this book and that is saying a lot. I will definitely check out more of her books.

3/5 13/25 Possible Score

Plot – 3(Good)

Characters – 2(O.K.)

Setting/World Building – 4(Strong)

Writing Style – 2(O.K.)

Heart & Mind Aspect – 2(O.K.)

Progress

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March Habits:
20 mins of exercise a day
1 hour of reading nonfiction a day
A day failed = $10 donated to the library
Successfully go the whole month = 1 new book buy.